Comments and Analysis from John Robertson on the Middle East, Central Asia, and U.S. Policy

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Faces of the Oslo Dead - and their Critics

A stunning gallery of portraits of beautiful young men and women, at the NY Times. The hope and promise literally shine from their eyes - eyes that are now forever closed, without light.

And as you gaze upon what Norway - and the world - have lost - the future leaders, scholars, diplomats, perhaps Nobel Prize winners - ponder the remarks of two of the truly execrable icons of right-wing Islamophobia, Glenn Beck and Pamela Geller.

Pamela Geller, who opined that the faces of the dead that she had seen showed an uncomfortably large number who looked to be of Middle Eastern descent - and who also offered up the view that the camp was likely a center of anti-Israel indoctrination. (And the Think Progress site where I found this also posts a nice little shot of Geller with Tea Party and Israel lobby stalwart Eric Cantor - the same Eric Cantor who has taken such pains to assure Mr. Netanyahu that the American Congress has Israel's back when to comes to the perfidy of the Obama administration.)

And then, ponder how, in a country that has appointed itself the paragon of human rights, democracy, freedom - all that good stuff - these two dim-bulbs have literally millions - millions! - of fans and followers.

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I've been a professor of ancient Near Eastern and modern Middle Eastern history at Central Michigan University since 1982. I was formally trained as an Assyriologist and Ancient Near East specialist [Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania], but since 1984, I have also been teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in Islamic and "modern" Middle Eastern history.
My book, "A Short History of Iraq," will soon be published by OneWorld Publications. You can find most of my published opinion pieces at the "War in Context" site. My scholarly publications appear in various academic journals and edited volumes.